In this unedited, hour-long interview, Takeshi Matsumoto talks succinctly & at length in English, in this un-prepared interview about his policies for the forthcoming Gubernatorial election race in Nagano. Apologies now for my poor Japanese & inability to help him with translations/appearance that I might be putting (the wrong) words into his mouth. I can’t imagine any local politician in the UK/US/Australia holding strong for an hour in a foreign language. I am very grateful to Mr. Matsumoto for making himself available and for putting himself in very unchartered waters politically.
We start our conversation with him explainging a bit about his personal background, setting up the Chihiro Art Museum in Azumino, and his obvious joy at the success his museum has had in bringing art to the people, and the illustrations of children’s books from all over the world to Azumino.
He explains how the success of this project led to his invitation by Yasuo Tanaka, a previous & slightly polarising Governor of the prefecture, to run the Nagano Prefecture Art Museum, and what his vision was at that time – to link education and art more directly. He also explains how his broad church definition of ‘art’ is more realistic for the society we live in; and how he sees ‘art’ as the spark to ignite children’s imaginations & discussion rather than a finished product for them to silently worship. As a teacher, hearing a politician say this and quite clearly believe in his message was a blessed relief! Hallelujah!
Matsumoto-san sees the need for museums and schools to co-operate much more closely, as schools do not have access to the art – and museums usually don’t have younger visitors. Is education important for him? Very. I think the should be a capital “E” for Education then.
He talks in depth about the success Aoki village has had integrating children & older citizens in a learning partnership, giving kids practical skills & involving them socially to develop their ability to communicate, overcome bullying and reverse the unwelcome ranking this prefecture has in absenteeism.
Jim “seeing kids falling out of trees would be great” – not exactly what I meant – thank heavens I’m not the politician! Hopefully, you know what I mean!?
Matsumoto-san explains ‘outdoor kindergartens’ & how important it will be to re-start such a programme for children (our incumbent Governor withdrew the funding). Simple but obvious (to me at least) that for children to experience & talk about life & death, be it bugs & slugs, is a little step they have to take for themselves & not treat so trivially as computer games etc do. No, kids do not have to pass exams 100%; society will benefit from a generation of children reconnecting with the world/society they inhabit.
Great idea to have teachers not be forced to move to different schools every two to three years. This is something that has never made sense to me, and counter-intuitive. Any teacher expecting to move soon cannot connect with his class or community, & is not at all motivated to put down roots or make much effort. Teachers and their families suffer a lot of stress as a result of this absurd practice, with no clear benefit at all to the education system. After a couple of moves, teachers become jaded and disconnected (in my opinion – I have seen this at Matsumoto Fuzoku JHS first-hand in my five years there as an ALT, at Daiichi HS in Matsumoto…and the complete opposite at the North Korean school here in town which recycles wonderfully and has the best adjusted students I’ve ever met). I wonder how popular or not this idea will be with the teachers’ union(s) & powers that be?
Talks about the prefectural system/bureaucracy and the restrictions the inherent structure dictates ie departments are unable to communicate laterally. Not an idea that will start alarm bells ringing in the Kencho (Prefectural HQ) – how come this doesn’t happen already?!
Touchy subject locally is Tanaka’s opposition to concrete damn construction, one which Matsumoto unequivocally agrees with (as do I). A simple policy that for my money ended up costing Tanaka his job/loss of powerful support as it highlighted his apparently arrogant attitude (my personal take is that he didn’t have the PR team spin his story as well as the old school tie brigade who got hungry very quickly when the pork barrel politics dried up). Matsumoto-san saw first-hand how Tanaka failed to listen to advice and that his unwillingness to trust his civil service resulted in losing his re-election bid. Is he a good listener?
Is Matsumoto-san a greenie? A term he doesn’t recognise but certainly puts the environment very high on his agenda – so he is very ‘green’. Identifies following goals:
- Shift to natural energy
- Reducing reliance on fossil fuels
- Pellet & wood-chip stoves
- Forestry – thinning/managing resources more sensibly
He says something I said a year ago at a Yokoso meeting (and got looked at like I was a loony!). Matsumoto airport has to be upgraded to attract inbound tourism directly. He also has very interesting ideas on the kind of tourism the prefecture should be trying to attract, and the importance local Yokoso projects have, such as providing foreign-language guides, particularly Chinese. Providing other languages in schools? Not something that can be decided locally. OK, he didn’t answer my question about his role models or idols, but this is a more relevant and pressing topic. Maybe he is a politician then!
He has a very interesting idea to promote the prefecture by establishing a prefectural film commission, with films of and about the place, and promoting Nagano as a location-rich prefecture. Of course, he has a lot of connections in the cultural world – and he’s not wrong about the beauty of our home.
Is he the modern guy with web technology? A late-comer, with a blog and on Twitter. Tongue in cheek, I ask him about the loud-speaker vans that I hate…but it seems the local volunteers look forward to that part the most. A guarded ‘not yet’ I think.
He skilfully points my questions to the other candidate in the direction of cronyism & hands in pockets in prefectural politics; this also means Matsumoto is the outsider a la Obama. Does he have the same slogan? “Make the hometown life with you” is his instant translation, identifies three key themes:
- Children
- Nature
- Culture
What was Obama’s musical ident? (Does anybody remember? Any suggestions for Matsumoto-san?) A trivial topic, but one which reminds Matsumoto of the very poor level of voter-participation & how he hopes to overcome that apathy. He skilfully brings this back to the importance of education & focusing on empowering children.
We finish with some trivial questions which give us an idea about the man who would be Governor (not his policies or soundbites. Not easy to answer as his wife, Teruki, was with us helping with translation (have to point out she is a Luna student and a good friend of mine), but bizarrely the toughest question of the day was about his favourite Sumo wrestler. I am sorry the interview was not longer – I have lots more questions for our would-be leader (as I am sure you do? Send them to me and I will try to ask him for you.)
I am going to invite the other candidate for Governor for a chat; I hope he accepts. It would be nice for the international community to feel a little more addressed even if we cannot vote. I think Matsumoto-san should be applauded loudly for his willingness to present himself in English, and for his obvious ability to do so coherently and clearly.
Takeshi Matsumoto’s (foreign readers try google translate) online presence:
website
blog
twitter
